Johnnie St. Vrain: OUR Center won't hand out expired food

You quoted Colorado's Department of Public Health as saying: "The state does not require expiration dates for food. Those expiration dates are determined by food manufacturers, not the government, and they relate to food quality rather than food safety. Nor does the state's health department regulate how long foods may stay on store shelves." This is in keeping with information I have heard elsewhere, and it makes sense.

My question is this: If food dates are for quality rather than safety, why won't the OUR Center accept even slightly out-of-date canned food? Earlier this year, my neighbor was moving out of state. She couldn't take too much with her, so she donated the contents of her pantry. We dropped it off, and then went back a couple of hours later with more donations. At that time, we saw much of the food we had previously donated sitting aside on a pallet. I asked why and was told it was discarded because it was a few weeks past date.

Considering how great the need is in our community, is there a legal reason the OUR Center cannot distribute this food, or was someone just overzealous? -- Waste Not, Want Not

Dear Waste Not: Neither.

I spoke with Christine Marckesano, communications director for the OUR Center, who was kind enough to track down an answer for me.

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What it boils down to is this: "We do our best to ensure that only safest and, to the extent possible, only the freshest food is provided to our clients," she responded. This does not mean they aren't grateful for donations, something Marckesano was clear to point out.

Here are the OUR Center "rules of thumb," as shared by Marckesano:

Items with "sell by/pull by" dates: "This is the date that stores use to determine when to pull an item from their shelves. ... While the item will still be good for a while after that date if stored properly, the food pantry won't know how it was handled/stored, and therefore will not be able to know if the food inside the package is still good. Because of this, we recommend individuals not donate items if the sell by/best by date has passed."

Items with "best if usedbefore/by" dates: "It will still be safe to consume the item after that date, but the quality and nutritional value begin to deteriorate over time (at different rates depending on the type of food). Because of this, we ask that folks not donate items if that date has passed."

Items with "expiration" dates: If that has passed, we ask that people not donate those items at all.

"The reason we follow guidelines such as these is because our intent is to give people at risk of hunger the best possible nutrition, and to do them no harm," she said. "While we understand that something that is slightly beyond a "sell by" or "best by" date may still be OK to eat, there is a possibility that someone could get sick and/or that we will be giving them something with limited nutritional value. When clients are struggling with so much in their lives, it is our responsibility to provide them food that will hopefully help to keep them healthy, rather than the opposite."

The OUR Center is not legally required to do these things.

Waste Not, I can understand their position. If I knew a family that needed help and decided to give them food, would I knowingly give them out-of-date items just because I could? Or would I give them only food that I would be willing to eat?

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